Electrically operated musical device



' Au 12, 1969 p. E. mapa 3,460,425

INVENTOR United States Patent O 3,460,42S ELECTRICALLY OPERATED MUSICAL DEVICE Paul Edwin Kiepe, Riggins, Idaho (113 Village Lane, Boise, Idaho 83702) Fed Apr. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 539,815 Int. Cl. G09b 15/00 US. Cl. 84-470 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to electrically operated musical devices of the class that provides the performer a musical score sheet with note heads perforated in such manner that the performer, by inserting a metallic wand seriatim through each perforation to metallic connecting bars be neath, brings about the utterance of prescribed musical compositions in tones supplied by an interconnected electrical oscillator-loudspeaker arrangement.

Illustrative of such a device is Patent Number 3,115,803 of E. A. Pedicano, described by the inventor as suitable for playing simple tunes or musical compositions.

Musical devices of this class have the disadvantage that they can be used to play only simple tunes and com positions for several reasons, one reason being that the said note-head perforations perforce destroy some of the note-head markings of the conventional musical code by which performers become aware of a composition s musical time values. So-:called hollow notes such as the conventional half note and the conventional whole note cannot occur in a notation where the heads of all notes are filled in, as is the case with this device, by the said metallic connecting bars shining through the note-head perforations from below. Another reason de- Vices of this class can be used to play only simple compositions is that the said interconnected oscillator-loudspeaker arrangement lacks means, as each note head is struck, for the performer to control sound volume. He cannot strike harder to get a sound that is louder, as with a piano, nor blow harder, as with a horn. Hence, each note he touches with the metallic wand plays at the same level of sound Volume as every other note, thus eliminating an important musical desideratum. Another reason devices of this class can be used to play only simple compositions is that the said metallic connecting bars, once tuned to a given musical key by adjustment of the capacitor, resistor, and Voltage values of the said oscillator, must remain in that key until there occurs a succeeding corresponding adjustment to another key. Hence, serially, musical compositions can be played only in one key. Moreover, in any musical composition where an accidental sharp or an accidental fiat occurs, the performer has no means at his Command of achieving such half-tone intervals. It is these shortcomings, acting one by one and in combination, that limit devces in this class to qute simple compositions indeed.

The object of the present improvement is to enable the performer not only to play on a device of this type a greater variety of tunes and musical compositions, but also to play them better, that is, more nearly as they should be played to conform to composers' requirements. This object the present improvement accomplishes by providing for the performefis guidance in determining musical time values the perforated note heads aforesaid in graduated standard lengths, and by providing for the performer's manipulation, at the same time he manipulates the metallic wand aforesaid, three electrcal controls interconnected to the oscillator-loudspeaker arrangement aforesaid whereby the performer produces not only changes in musical expression but also half-tome increments and decrements.

The advantages to the performer of the present improvement include the following:

(1) He may now play on the said device compositions in their correct tempo by a simple reading of the code of note length;

(2) He may now play on the device compositions and portions thereof with any desired musical expression of softness or loudness;

(3) He may now play on the device compositions in any musical key;

(4) He may now play on the device compositions that include musical accidental notes either a half tone above or a half tone below Staff position; and

(5) In the accomplishment of these advantages, the performer does not sacrifice the chief advantage of the device heretofore: to wit, that it may be played rewardingly by persons of little musical gift.

The manner in which the foregoing and other objects and advantages of this improvement are accomplished, and the Construction of the mechanical and electrcal contrivances for accomplishing them, will be apparent from the accompanying specification and claims considered together with the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a typical electrically operated musical device of this class which shows the characteristic musical score sheet with perforated note heads, and which shows this invention's improvement from the standpoint of the performer; and

FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing of the electric components and electrical Circuits of the typical device showing this inventions improvement in respect to its electronic parts and circuitry.

Considering the foregoing in greater detail and with particular reference to the drawings, the general character of this improvement is physically apparent from FIG. l, and electrically apparent from FIG. 2. Like reference numbers in the two figures indicate like parts.

In FIG. 1, Where the partially cut away score sheet 1 is seen to be n playing position on score board 2 :as a consequence of the positioning efiect of score sheet mating slot 3 (of which there are two) and score board mating pin 4 (of which there are two), the musical notes with perforated heads, of which note 5 it typical, overlie complementary connecting bars, of which connecting bar 6 is typical, in the usual manner, and the tempo of the particular musical Selection of the score sheet 1 is shown as four quarter-notes to the measure (4/4).

This invention s improvement as to note-head length s shown typcally in the length of note head 5 and n the various lengths of the heads of the thirty-one other notes. Typical note head 5, a half note, is shown perforated through the score sheet at twice the length of a quarter note and at half the length of a whole note. A typical whole note is shown in FIG. 1 as the C beneath the point of the characteristic touch wand 10 in the ninth measure. All the other note heads perforate the score sheet in like manner. The varying note lengths tell the performer in a simple code what relative length of time he should permit the touch wands point to rest upon each note head and thus give the composition its characteristic beat and tempo.

FIG. 1 shows the second feature of the present improvement in the volume control 16 which presents for the performer s manipulation a moveable handle 17 by which he controls the loudness of the tones generated by the interconnected oscillator-loudspeaker arrangement 9. For each musical note produced as a consequence of the performer s touching a note head with the touch wand 10, typcally with his right band, he establishes an appropriate setting of the volume control lever 17, typcally with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, simultaneously. FIG. 2

shows the electrical workings of the -arrangement, the handle 17 being the moveable arm of a volume-control potentiometer 16 that regulates the input voltage from the oscillator to the interconnected loudspeaker system.

The third feature of the present improvement appears in FIG. 1 in the pushbuttons 14 and 15 whose faces bear the markings S (for Sharp) and F (for Flat) respectively. The performer, when he wishes to raise a score note a half tone, presses the button S; When he wishes to lower a score note a half tone, he presses the button F, typically with the third and fourth fiingers of his left hand. FIG. 2 shows the electrical workings of the arrangernent, the two buttons 14 and 15 being the control arms of electrical switches that subtract, in the one instance, and add in the other, electrical capacitance to the oscillator circuit in pre-set amounts required to raise by a half tone or lower by a half tone the oscillator's output frequency. As shown in FIG. 2, the pushbutton switches 14 and 15 are at the correct Setting for the position of the touch wand depicted in FIG. 1, since the wand, as shown, is in contact, in the ninth measure, with the note C In the key of E-flat, C is natural; therefore switch 14 is closed and switch 15 is open, the natural-tone position in each case.

It is to be understood that the control arm 17 and the S and F pushbuttons can as well be cast in a form to be varied by the performer's arm, knee, leg, foot, or other bodily part without departing from the spirit of this invention so long as the electrical and musical functions hereinabove set forth for these Controls thereby avail themselves to the performer.

Having thus described my i mprovement in its preferred embodiment, I claim:

1. An electrically operated musical device that provdes a musical score sheet with note heads perforated through the sheet, a connective touch Wand insertable through said note heads, a score board with metallic connecting bars beneath said musical score sheet interconnected with an audio-frequency oscillator and associated amplifierloudspeaker arrangement wherein each said connecting bar, When touched by said wand, produces a musical tone corresponding to the musical ptch of each such note head, a switching system with external controls for manipulation by the performer comprising a circuit-closing member and a Circuit-Opening member interconnected with preset capacitors in said oscillator s vibration-time circuit whereby the uttered musical tone corresponding to each note head's pitch is raiseable and lowerable by a half tone.

2. The electrically operated musical device of claim 1, n combination with an expression-control variable potentiometer with external handle for manipulation by the perforrner, electrically interconnected to the said oscillator output, that attenuates variably the passage of electric Current between said oscillator and said loudspeaker and that controls thereby the volume -at which said loudspeaker utters each sound in musical coordination with the aforesaid note-producng features of the instrument.

3. The electrically operated musical device of claim 1 in combination with an improvement of said score sheet wherein the said note heads are perforated in the shape of rectangular parallelograms of one of several graduated standard lengths, said lengths corresponding to, and constituting a readable code for telling the performer, each note's musical time Value.

4. A musical score sheet of dielectric material upon whose face is printed in ink the staves and notes of a musical composing or exercise, with the heads of the notes apertured in the shape of rectangular parallelograms whose laterfal dimension is so formed in graduated standard lengths as to constitute a readable code for telling the performer each note s musical time Value.

References Cited UNITED STATES 'PATENTS 3,115,803 12/1963 Pedicano 84-470 FOREIGN PATENTS 17,140 7/1911 Great Britain.

STEPHEN J. TOMSKY, Primary EXaminer LAWRENCE R. FRANKLIN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 84-483 

